


Day 32: A Tale of Two Stans

by PineTrain



Series: 40 Days of Pinecest [33]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Relativity Falls, F/M, pinecest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-06
Updated: 2017-04-06
Packaged: 2018-10-15 20:33:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10557296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PineTrain/pseuds/PineTrain





	

Thanks to [@mrdaxxonford](https://tmblr.co/mbqSrb6sGCjSfunY0utC1qA), [@edward-or-ford](https://tmblr.co/mcWmP17SlZYqJtOC0hJjt2Q), and especially [@asterism-pinoideae](https://tmblr.co/mUCMWjdjpY1nMGiXeNJXvYQ) for taking a look at it beforehand.

* * *

“The Author of the Journals, my brother.”

A grizzled man exited the portal and pulled down his scarf, his eyes weathered and serious. Ford and Stan stood in awe as he walked towards the group. Their Grauntie had a brother? And he was the Author? Neither knew how to react.

“Dipper…” Grauntie Mabel said quietly, a huge smile on her face.

The man regarded her coldly, “Mabel, it’s been a while.” Their Grauntie’s smile faded rapidly at his harsh tone.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Stan said, waving his hands as he looked down, eyes clenched, “What? Just, what?”

“Who are they?” Dipper asked as he turned to the boys.

“Ty’s grandchildren.”

“Ty? Wait, I have… nephews?”

“Grandnephews,” Mabel corrected.

Dipper approached the two and knelt to lay a hand on each of their shoulders, “I - I’m your great uncle M… er, Dipper.”

“Dipper?” Ford asked, gasping when the old man lifted his hair to reveal the constellation. He could hardly believe it, not only was he related to the Author, but the Author was weird just like him. It would’ve been a dream come true if he’d ever even hoped to dream such a coincidence. He could barely contain his excitement, a billion questions erupting in his head.

“Yeah, great to meet you and all, great uncle, or… uh, Grunkle Dipper. But no one answered my ‘What?’” Stan said. “There’s a story here and I wanna hear it.”

Ford glared at him, but had to agree. As much as he wanted to ask all those questions, the story held precedence. Why had they never heard of Grunkle Dipper? Why did he seem so angry at Grauntie Mabel even though she’d clearly gone through so much to bring him back? How did he even end up wherever he had been?

“Um, I’m not sure if…” Mabel started.

“No, if they’re family they should know, Mabel,” Dipper said flatly. Grauntie Mabel flinched. There seemed to be some deep animosity between the two.

“But Dipper…”

“Mabel, if you’d seen the things I have over the last 30 years, you wouldn’t care what this world considers taboo. They deserve to know, regardless.”

Ford suspected this wasn’t going to be a very happy story, but was curious nonetheless. Stan was pretty excited, himself.

———–

_Two children played in a grassy field during their camping trip with their parents. They’d always been together since their birth and were the best of friends._

_“Haha! Alpha Twin!” Mabel yelled, pinning her brother to the ground._

_“Yeah, yeah, you win,” Dipper said, his smile showing no ill intent, despite the grumbly tone in his admission of defeat._

_As they sat up, Mabel hugged him. “I love you bro-bro!” she said with a tight squeeze._

_“I love you too, but I can’t breathe…” Dipper choked out._

———-

“I don’t get it. You guys sound like you got along great,” Stan said quizzically.

“Yes, we did,” Grunkle Dipper said, looking at Grauntie Mabel.

Ford noticed how she shrank away, holding herself and looking quite depressed. It was a very odd sight in his normally boisterous and excited aunt.

———-

_Dipper had just won the science fair. A scholarship to the most prestigious school in the country to boot. The whole family was elated, but Mabel most of all. The whole celebratory dinner she couldn’t take her eyes off him._

_It wasn’t the first time she’d felt like this about him, but it was the most she ever had. The shining joy on his face as he received congratulation upon congratulation. He was normally so dour-looking. Not because he was in a bad mood, just because he stayed up so late and had perpetual bags under his eyes. It’d ruined his dating career, and Mabel was always secretly happy for it. It hurt whenever she saw him with another girl._

_She couldn’t hold herself back after seeing him like that. She told herself it was just another congratulation for him, because it was, in a way. Doesn’t a hero deserve a kiss after a victory? And when they were alone in the moonlight and her lips touched his, only to feel him press back, she knew she truly loved him as more than a brother._

———

The nephews were surprised, to say the least. As far as romance went, Ford had a few comical failures, while Stan’s adventures had only succeeded in making the summer more interesting, to put it nicely. Neither was prepared for this kind of bombshell.

Grauntie Mabel continued to stand away in the shadows, interjecting with her perspective from time to time, tears glinting on her face, as Grunkle Dipper continued the tale.

———-

_While he was away at school, contact was sparse. In this day and age, there might be more advanced technology, but back then, it was letters and landlines. Mabel grew worried from the distance. His letters were so sparse and his phone calls so brief. He was just so busy it was hard to keep in touch._

_“I think we need to be a bit more careful,” he said one night over the phone, a nervous tone tinting his words. “I might have given a bit too much away by accident. There’s this girl,” muffled sounds came from the background, “Shit! Shit! I gotta go!”_

_Several weeks passed with no contact, and Mabel’s memory faded and molded to one of paranoia. All she remembered was being careful, and there being a girl. He’d been cut off when they spoke, was he trying to tell her they should find girlfriends and boyfriends? He never answered when she called, and no letters were coming. She decided to go ahead and go out with a boy, just to be safe._

_Mabel liked him. Probably a bit too much, seeing as he was only a prop, for appearances’ sake until the boy she really liked came back in the picture. She tried to keep it mostly platonic, but when he kissed her one night on the couch at her home, it was hard to resist indulging just a little after so much loneliness. She didn’t expect the hand on her breast, though, and was about to swat it away when the front door opened._

_She turned to see Dipper’s face completely blank as he stared at them. He closed the door and Mabel hopped up to reopen it, just in time to see his car driving away._

———-

“But, wasn’t that kinda your fault, too?” Stan asked Dipper.

He nodded. “Yes. Even if I was busy, I should’ve sent her something or called. I didn’t think she’d take it the wrong way, and I overreacted when it happened. I should’ve given her the chance to explain what was going on.”

“But you didn’t,” Mabel said.

“No, I didn’t.”

———-

_Dipper vanished off the face of the earth. Not entirely, since letters still came, but the return address, if there even was one, was always different. Mabel tried to track a pattern, but it seemed completely random. For all she knew, half the addresses were fake._

_Her feelings never died. All she wanted was to see him again, to apologize, to have him take her in his arms like he had so long ago. But he had gone, and it was beginning to look as though she would never see him again._

_She sank into a depression and became a bit of a recluse. Her small florist shop gave her some social interaction, but otherwise she rarely spoke with other people. She grew bitter about the whole situation, angry that he’d just disappear so quickly._

_One day, she began telling all her customers that the price of roses had increased due to difficulty growing them. It was a complete lie, but her anger had seeped out, and it felt strangely good to see the schmucks believe her. She felt terrible about it afterward, tricking those people who’d been coming to her shop for years and trusted her implicitly. She sold the business and went on the road._

———

“She wasn’t wrong about the fake addresses. It probably was about half of them, but the others were real,” Dipper said, “A prestigious degree can open a lot of doors.”

“But, well, how did you, uh, feel about Grauntie?” Ford asked.

———

_Dipper had been heartbroken. He worked so hard because he knew he needed to be secure when he finished college. He had to have connections, money, whatever it took to keep their secret from getting out. He couldn’t let her be hurt, but he couldn’t leave her, either._

_At least, until he saw her locking lips with another man when he came home to surprise her. He didn’t know what to do except leave. It was over. He’d ignored her too long. He’d lost her._

_As often as he thought about her, he just never had the time to do anything to contact her. He was taking twice the course load of an average student just to finish in half the time. Apparently that was a mistake._

_Dipper reached a stoplight and wiped his eyes. He caught a glance at the flowers and chocolates in the passenger seat. He had left them in his eagerness to see her, but now they just made him feel sick. He lowered the passenger window and flung them out as the light turned green._

_He buried himself in his work, his professors impressed enough to let him do most of it away from school. He only had to return for his dissertation, and he soon received a grant that allowed him to explore the country. He’d always had a fascination for the unknown mysteries hiding in the abstract corners of the world, and while it took some effort, Dipper convinced his patrons to support him._

_But as he traveled, he was reminded at every corner of her. A rainbow, a pig, a shooting star, a billion different things that dredged the pain up whenever he least expected it. His anger and bitterness grew with each one, frustrated by how she could’ve left him so easily._

———-

“So basically, if you guys just talked you could’ve sorted this out,” Stan said, crossing his arms.

Ford whacked the back of his brother’s head for disrespecting their elders. The older twins were quiet.

“So how did you end up in the other dimension, Grunkle Dipper?” Ford asked, trying to get things back on track.

———-

_The twins soon switched living styles, though neither realized it. As Mabel began to wander the country, Dipper found Gravity Falls and settled in._

_Mabel found it much easier to swindle people she didn’t know, and traversed the country, conning people left and right. She was never quite sure whether she was just doing it to survive on her nomadic trail or if she actually enjoyed it, some of that black bile of anger coming out and giving sorely needed relief._

_For his part, Dipper had plenty of work to distract him, and he found plenty of joy in recording all the unbelievable creatures native to the area. But small towns have few lights, and the stars were many at night. Sometimes he’d snap back to attention just to realize he’d been staring at the sky for an hour, lost in thoughts he could never keep buried._

———-

“Yeah, okay, it sucked. We get it.”

Ford smacked his brother again. “They’re building a narrative!” he hissed under his breath.

“They can build whatever later! I wanna know why we’re here right now!” Stan hissed back.

Dipper and Mabel didn’t seem to notice the argument, both thinking deeply during the pause. Dipper spoke up first.

———

_He’d made a mistake. Or, he’d made several mistakes and had no idea which of them was the worst. He had no one to call, no one he could trust with this monumental task. Hadn’t he planned on having contacts for a time in need?_

_Oh yeah, he didn’t think it was necessary anymore after all that had happened with Mabel. Mabel… he didn’t want to contact her. The wounds never healed, always opening fresh just when he thought they were gone. Still, this was the fate of the world, he’d have to bite the bullet._

_Mabel’s eyes popped when the letter arrived. She instantly recognized the handwriting, though it had somehow grown more refined and sloppy at the same time. He wasn’t sleeping. A tear fell from her eye at the thought and she chuckled a little. She’d have to get him back on schedule._

_Every time she had thought of him the last few years, she was angry. On the surface, Mabel told herself it was at how he’d just run away and left her with nothing, but deep down she knew she was really angry at herself for always hoping this letter would someday come._

_Well, now it had. She didn’t even bother properly closing her business, it was under an assumed name anyways. She grabbed what cash and valuables she could, pawning the latter off as she made her way to Oregon._

———

“Hey, uh, Poindexter,” Stan whispered, “Should I go get a bowl of ice cream for Grauntie Mabel?”

Ford wanted to say yes. Ice cream always cheered her up, and she looked absolutely miserable right now. This seemed important though, so instead he took Stan’s hand in his, squeezing to let him know he should stay. He didn’t know Dipper, and the man seemed very hardened, but he felt like the same pain was there.

———

_Dipper exited the hidden passageway to find Mabel just entering the front door, the screen door rattling behind her. She’d gotten here far earlier than he expected._

_“D-”_

_“Mabel, good, you’re here,” Dipper interrupted. His head was killing him, and it was taking a ton of effort to stay focused. He had to get this done now, so he could focus on a dozen other things needed to fix his mistake._

_“Follow me,” he said, turning around and heading back to the elevator that led to the lab. He bumped into the wall, but shrugged it off and continued._

_Mabel was devastated. Wasn’t there supposed to be some kind of grand hug? She’d leap into his arms and he’d twirl her around as they both apologized for everything. That was how this was supposed to go. Or at least, like, a handshake and a ‘It’s been a long time’. Something more than, ‘hey, follow me’._

_She felt the black bile returning as her eyes teared up. She followed him down to the lab, glaring the whole way there._

———-

Dipper was shifting uncomfortably as the other three members of the family stared at him.

———-

_A large, glowing blue portal stole Mabel’s attention when they reached their destination. Dipper was singularly focused on it, as well. A subtle breeze flowed through the room, as if the portal was a drain sucking the air around them into it._

_“What is it?”_

_“Nothing good, that’s why I contacted you.”_

_Mabel was surprised. It didn’t seem possible to get angrier than she’d already been. Had he just called her here to serve as a tool for whatever science nonsense this was?_

_“I need you to take this journal and go somewhere where no one will ever find it. This is important, that’s why you’re the only one I can trust with this.”_

_Dipper thought he was being sensible about this, ignoring their past in favor of the fate of the world. The dark look growing on her features was the only warning he got before she shoved the book back against him._

_“No.”_

_Dipper instantly understood there was no getting past it all, but this wasn’t the time to deal with that. “Mabel! You have to do this! I can’t let anyone find these journals together!”_

_“So what, you screw up and it’s alright to expect something from me, but I make a mistake and it’s fine to just disappear?”_

_“Mabel, this is bigger than us. You need to think about the - ”_

_She cut him off, “I’ve thought about a lot of things over the years! I’m not just going to be your patsy like none of it ever happened. Do you know how hard it was?”_

_Dipper felt his own anger flare, “Yeah! It was hard for me too! You think I would have contacted you if it wasn’t important?!”_

_Mabel slapped him. “So I really am just some tool for you…”_

_Dipper held his cheek, “No, it’s just… you’re the only one I can really trust…”_

_They were both quiet after that statement. Long suppressed feelings of love mixed with the negative feelings built up over the years and left them both confused about how to handle the current situation._

_But Dipper remembered the most important reason she was here. “Look, Mabel, you have to take this and then after we can…”_

_“NO!” she shouted, shoving him back. She couldn’t just leave, not now._

_But as he stumbled backwards, Dipper’s feet lifted off the ground slowly. Mabel was confused, but she saw the panicked look in his eyes and knew something was very wrong. She reached and grabbed his flailing arm, struggling to hold him without passing whatever invisible threshold he had._

_Their eyes met just before her grip slipped. He threw the journal past her and she heard his last words just before he went through and the portal closed: “I love you.”_

———

“Soooo, does that mean you guys made up at the last second or…?” Stan’s question trailed off.

“Well, er…?” Dipper paused and looked quizzically at the boy.

“Stan.”

“Well, Stan, 30 years is a long time. Also, this portal should never have been turned on again, it’s too dangerous,” he glared over at Mabel.

“So what, I should’ve left you in god-knows-where?” she fired back angrily.

“Yes! Yes, you should’ve! Do you know what you might’ve done by turning this on?”

“Well, I’m sorry if I wanted to see you safe and sound again! 30 years IS a long time! And I spent all of it trying to get you back!” Mabel’s eyes were tearing up again from both anger and hurt, “You’re not even going to thank me for saving you?”

Dipper didn’t answer, but the look on his face showed that no, he wasn’t going to thank her. The room fell very quiet after that. Ford wasn’t really sure what to say or do in this situation, not wanting to make things worse. Stan had no such compunctions.

“You two need to stop being dweebs and forgive each other,” he said dismissively, everyone looking at him with surprise. It was such a nonchalant statement in such an emotionally charged situation that it was impossible not to be surprised. Ford moved to smack the back of his brother’s head again for being so callous but he dodged this one.

“Look, you nerds both screwed up a lot, but does it really matter who screwed up more? So stop arguing and forgive each other. Or beat each other up, sometimes that’s how me and Ford work things out.”

Ford rolled his eyes. The “beat each other up” option was only used when Stan really wanted to win the argument since he was stronger. And this was decades of emotional issues, you don’t just forgive and forget after all that.

“Hm, there might be something to that,” Dipper said, stroking his stubble-covered chin. He glanced over at Mabel who winced slightly before looking back in defiance, “But that will need to come later. I have work to do.” He marched off towards the elevator.

Mabel looked furious as she haphazardly wiped her tears away before speaking, “Come on, boys, let’s make sure he doesn’t have a heart attack when he sees what I’ve done with the place.”

Ford followed her with Stan close behind. This was a lot to take in. Their uncle and aunt were clearly not going to get along well if they both stayed here. Oh nuts, and they were a brother and sister who’d dated a long time ago. Who’d still had feelings for each other, at least before Dipper was sucked away. Did they still feel that way or had the 30 years really split them apart that much? It was all so complicated and he was not good on romance issues.

“So, what do we do now, Poindexter?” Stan whispered so Mabel wouldn’t hear.

“I don’t know, Stan. I don’t know.”


End file.
